"Certainly the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis are not better off."

[sabra]

http://www.democracynow.org/seo/2010/11/10/nir_rosen_on_aftermath_following_the

<snip>

MATT LAUER: Was there ever any consideration of apologizing to the American people?

GEORGE W. BUSH: I mean, apologizing would basically say the decision was a wrong decision, and I don’t believe it was a wrong decision.

MATT LAUER: If you knew then—

GEORGE W. BUSH: Yeah.

MATT LAUER:—what you know now—

GEORGE W. BUSH: That’s right.

MATT LAUER:—you would still go to war in Iraq?

GEORGE W. BUSH: I, first of all, didn’t have that luxury. You just don’t have the luxury when you’re president. I will say, definitely, the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power, as are 25 million people who now have a chance to live in freedom.


AMY GOODMAN: That was President Bush.

Well, for more on Iraq, as well as Afghanistan and US involvement in other parts of the Middle East, we’re joined here in New York by independent journalist Nir Rosen. His latest book is called Aftermath: Following the Bloodshed of America’s Wars in the Muslim World. Nir Rosen is also a fellow at New York University’s Center on Law and Security.

Welcome to Democracy Now! Let’s start with President Bush’s words.

NIR ROSEN: Well, what’s he going to say? This is a man whose legacy is Iraq. He said that 25 million Iraqis are better off. Certainly the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis are not better off. Their families aren’t better off. The tens of thousands of Iraqi men who languished in American and subsequently Iraqi gulags are not better off. The children who lost their fathers aren’t better off. The millions of Iraqis who lost their homes, hundreds of thousands of refugees in the region, are not better off. So there’s no mathematical calculation you can make to determine who’s better off and who’s not.

[Ian David]

1. They're not "dead." They're "Posthumously Liberated." n/t

[rfranklin]

2. The infrastructure was destroyed, the economy was destroyed,

sectarian violence continues, the government is a corrupt shambles, but George Bush is happy with the results.

[madmax]

3. Since it's unlikely that the dynamic duo of

bush/chaney will most likely not be appearing at the Hague. My next best hope is that there is a special hell reserved for them, preferably in this life.

[gratuitous]

4. As long as you concentrate on one and only one thing, Bush can make his case

And, good news! Nobody who gets paid millions of dollars to read the news on any of the networks or cable channels can think to ask a follow up question, or look at the situation from any other angle than the one Bush insists on. It's just so hard thinking up things to ask; better to just let Bush frame the question as it pleases him, and nod while he blathers on with an irrelevant answer. That's journalism, that is!

[stray cat]

5. Although the Shite under Saddam were killed off in mass and persecuted

it has been awhile since most in the US would want to live there - fighting against Iran was also a killer for Iraqis

[lsewpershad]

6. Yes

We should never forget the number of Iraqis lives affected. GW is such an asshole. Hopefully one day soon he will pay for this crime. He must have a very stupid "god" who holds Iraqi life as inferior compared to Americans.